Chapter 38
42. But sight shall displace faith; and hope shall be swallowed up in that
perfect bliss to which we shall come: love, on the other hand, shall wax
greater when these others fail. For if we love by faith that which as yet we
see not, how much more shall we love it when we begin to see! And if we love
by hope that which as yet we have not reached, how much more shall we love it
when we reach it! For there is this great difference between things temporal
and things eternal, that a temporal object is valued more before we possess
it, and begins to prove worthless the moment we attain it, because it does not
satisfy the soul, which has its only true and sure resting-place in eternity:
an eternal object, on the other hand, is loved with greater ardour when it is
in possession than while it is still an object of desire, for no one in his
longing for it can set a higher value on it than really belongs to it, so as
to think it comparatively worthless when he finds it of less value than he
thought; on the contrary, however high the value any man may set upon it when
he is on his way to possess it, he will find it, when it comes into his
possession, of higher value still.
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